The Lord Taketh Away

For some reason I make the mistake (maybe it isn't a mistake--maybe it is stupidity--my Dad says that a mistake is something you make once, maybe twice, but after that it is just stupid) of trying to reason with some kids I grew up with back in Florida who have become wildly evangelical with their Christianity. I feel like I owe it to someone--I don't know who, maybe other kids back home that have not fallen for their nonsense--to make the case for rational thought, science, common goddamn sense, etc. Anyhow, it rarely seems to work and I end up in long comment threads on Facebook trying to understand how someone can possibly think the types of things they do. I am an Atheist. I believe that the creation of the universe was not done by any of the deities that are found in religious texts. I do not believe in Gods. Spirituality, the soul, these things are of interest to me, but on a scientific level. Other than that, I make no assertions about the universe. I am not a Nihilist, a fascist, a Nazi, a barbarian, or any of the other things I have been called by these kids, called them simply for not believing that the Bible, in all its infinite wisdom about burning witches, stoning to death prostitute daughters of priests, the keeping of slaves, etc, to be a very moral book. Moral in the sense that it does more good than harm,not moral in the sense that it follows the customs of an archaic text, which is a distinction worth making. For them Morality is what God wants us to do. For me it is what society would benefit from most, what would cause the least amount of suffering, pain, death, etc.

For believing that, I am a nihilist. My morals are said to have no compass. Who invented the compass anyway? The Arabs, I think.

Anyhow, I read this in the November issue of Harper's. One of the kids said that "Ideas have consequences." I agree. Here is an example.

The lord taketh away

From the trial of Carl Worthington of Oregon City, Oregon, who was charged with manslaughter after his fifteen-month-old daughter Ava died last March of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been cured with antibiotics. Instead of seeking medical treatment, Worthington and his wife, Raylene, with family and other members of the Followers of Christ, prayed and conducted faith-healing rituals. In July, Worthington was found guilty of criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to sixty days in jail. Greg Horner was the prosecutor.

greg horner: Let’s start with your beliefs about the use of modern medicine. You don’t believe in modern medicine. Isn’t that correct?

carl worthington: I don’t know that I’d say that I don’t believe in it. I don’t put my faith in it, would be a better term.

horner: You don’t use modern medicine as a means of addressing illness. Is that correct?

worthington: Right. If I can anoint someone with olive oil and he starts feeling better, then there’s no need to use medicine.

horner: Well, it’s a little bit more than that, though, isn’t it? It’s not whether they get better or not. It’s just that you don’t believe in using modern medicine.

worthington: It has to do a lot with how they do. If I never seemed to get better, then why would I do it? I would probably use modern medicine myself. I’ve never felt that I’ve needed it. It wasn’t because somebody forced this on me. It’s because I seen it for myself, as I was growing up. When I was anointed, I felt better, so that trained me to have faith in it.

horner: Has your position changed as a result of what happened to your daughter?

worthington: No, it’s still the same.

horner: So the fact that you did not get your daughter to a hospital Saturday night, and she died a day later, has not changed your position on modern medicine?

worthington: Well, it hasn’t changed the way I feel. I’ve seen nothing here that’s proved to me that it would have been any different had we taken her in. When a doctor can’t do nothing for you, you usually put it in God’s hands anyways, so that’s where I’d had it the whole time.

horner: Even in retrospect, even knowing the outcome, you wouldn’t change how you handled her medical condition?

worthington: There’s nothing they’ve done to prove that they could have cured her. What I got was a maybe yeah, maybe no. They wasn’t sure.

horner: You acknowledge, then, that, gosh, maybe if I’d taken her in, she’d be alive today?

worthington: I don’t believe so, no.

horner: Well, that’s what you said about what the doctors would say. But for you, it was more important to follow your faith. Isn’t that right?

worthington: My point is that if the medicine hadn’t worked, the doctor would tell you to put your faith in God anyway. They’d say there’s nothing more we can do for you. That’s where my faith and trust was, so it sounds like there’s a good chance that’s where I would have ended up anyway.

horner: Getting back to the question about whether or not you were willing to ignore the medical likelihood, that had your child been taken in Saturday night, she would have survived—you were willing to take the chance that that wouldn’t happen. Is that right?

worthington: What chance are we talking about here?

horner: The chance of Ava dying.

worthington: When?

horner: Saturday night.

worthington: Saturday night? I didn’t think she was doing that bad Saturday night. She started off like she was coming down with a cold. I mean, does everyone take their kids in every time they have a cold?

horner: No, they don’t. But they do take their child in when they’ve got a huge growth on their neck, and they’re choking, and having difficulty breathing, and the father thinks that there’s a possibility they’re going to die!

worthington: I don’t recall her ever choking. There was a moment after she hadn’t slept all night when I was worried that she was getting weak, and then I saw her take her bottle and hoist it up with one arm by herself, and she showed me she was strong.

horner: So you see her lift up a bottle with one hand, and that’s enough for you to say, Okay, I’m willing to take my chances with prayer?

worthington: Well, it was an improvement. And we wanted to see a bigger improvement. We did see that bigger improvement that evening, after we’d laid hands on her again.

horner: Had she declined, you would have been on the phone to 911 and got that child to the hospital? Is that what you’re saying?

worthington: That’s an impossible question to answer. It’s possible that someone could lose their faith if they’re not getting the results they want. But why would you take them to a doctor if they’re getting better?

horner: You take them to a doctor because if you don’t, the bacteria and the pneumonia kills them. Does that make sense to you?

worthington: Say it again.

horner: You said, “Why would you take a child into the doctor?” The answer is, you take them in because they die from bacteria, pneumonia and swelling. Does that make sense?

worthington: I didn’t know she had a pneumonia, I didn’t know any of that.

horner: Why was it that you didn’t know that?

worthington: I’m not a doctor, I guess.